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NEC's domesticated R100 robot welcomes you home, flips channels
NEC has a new home-roaming robot on the loose, which doesn't deviate too terribly much from its PaPeRo sibling visually, but sports a much more domesticated allure in its feature set. Weighing about 17.5 pounds, the R100 sports two CCD cameras as "eyes," three built-in microphones to hear commands from any direction, a bevy of sensors which detects your "tap, stroke, or press" to prevent it from cruising into tables or chairs (or children), and even environmental sensors to measure temperature and ambient light. It motors around at a blistering 1.34 miles per hour, and boasts a moveable head, a pair of integrated speakers, and facially-implanted LEDs for flashing communications. The bot is notorious for sparking conversation with its family, greets users by name, asks what it can do to help out, and even reads your email to you via its built-in WiFi capability. Moreover, it can beam commands to switch television channels, dim your lights, or activate a variety of appliances around the house. While there's no set release date for the prototype, we certainly wouldn't mind pairing this fellow up with our own robotic butler for the ultimate life of luxury, and you catch a more in-depth glimpse by sneaking a peek of the R100 in action.[Via Ubergizmo]
iLane, the email reader for your car
It's probably not the safest practice to to single-handedly control your vehicle while single-handedly checking your email, but until now there really wasn't an everything-free way to check your inbox while cruising. The iLane, a small device that interfaces with your Bluetooth-enabled handheld, acts as your own personal narrator by notifying the driver of incoming mail, reading your messages in a "natural sounding voice" -- which we'll believe when we hear it -- and replying to your commands. Reportedly, you can even forward, reply, or compose a message via the device, but we're unsure how chaotic your driving environment may end up whilst dealing with the presumably poor voice-recognition assistant. One much appreciated feature is the ability to prioritize messages so those disjointed "male performance supplement" advertisements in your spam folder aren't read before the manager's memo. Although the iLane currently lacks a price and release date, the handsfree approach to email while road-tripping should eliminate a few hazards along the way. [Via Mobilemag]
